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The Casino dates back to prohibition days when "bathtub gin" required a few extra ingredients to make it drinkable.

As gin was the predominant drink in the 1920s, many variations were created by mixing cheap grain alcohol with water, flavorings and other agents, such as juniper berry juice and glycerin. Because the preferred sort of bottle was too tall to be topped off with water from a sink, they were filled from a bathtub tap. The common metal bathtub in use at the time would have been ideal as would have been a ceramic bathtub, hence the name, 'bathtub gin'.

Many gin cocktails owe their existence to bathtub gin, as they were created to mask the unpleasant taste. The Casino is a true prohibition classic and it's sophisticated sharpness is perfect for a comeback.

British humor is all about innuendo. Have you ever watched an episode of the Great British Bake Off that doesn't make some reference to sex in a TV family, friendly way? No, me either! Here are just a few in case you missed them:

“You’ve got great penetration of the drizzle”

“You’ve got two hours to achieve ultimate moistness”

“Can you grab my jugs?”

Mary: “I’ve had many sausage rolls in my time”
Sue: “I bet you have”

Innuendo bingo anyone??

So lets talk about a nice bit of crumpet shall we? As well as being a reference to someone we want to take to bed, a crumpet is actually something rather delicious! It's like a thick and fluffy pancake with the addition of yeast to give it lift and those all important bubble holes that capture and hold all of the golden melted butter- I had you at golden melted butter didn't I?

The early crumpets were hard pancakes cooked on a griddle, rather than the soft and spongy crumpets of the Victorian era, which were made with yeast. The term itself may refer to a crumpled or curled-up cake. English crumpets are generally circular, roughly 8 cm in diameter and 2 cm thick. Their shape comes from being restrained in the pan/griddle by a shallow ring. They have a characteristic flat top with many small pores and a chewy and spongy texture. They may be cooked until ready to eat warm from the pan but are frequently left slightly under cooked so that they may be cooled and stored before being eaten freshly toasted. They are often eaten with a thick spread of butter. If you make your crumpet thinner by not using a ring these are referred to as pikelets.

Crumpets are quite time consuming to make and rather unsurprisingly fast to disappear once the family know they are made. We ate so many crumpets on our UK trip that I knew I had to make some more at home. The ones I make are half way between a crumpet and a pikelet because I don't use a ring to hold the crumpet in the pan, rather I use a small pan that fits one in at a time;

You may giggle at my pan but when I saw it in the Dollar store I knew immediately that it was the perfect size for cooking crumpets so I bought it. Judge me all you like, I know your only jealous.

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English Crumpets

by Elyse Chatterton September-11-2017

Golden, toasted crumpets dripping with butter! There is nothing better.

Ingredients

350 g All Purpose Flour

7 g Fast Action Dried Yeast

1 teaspoon Sugar

350 ml Warm Milk

170 ml Warm Water

1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

1 teaspoon Sea Salt

Lard for oiling the pan

Instructions

Place the flour and yeast in a bowl and whisk together. Dissolve the sugar in the warm milk and pour onto the flour. Using a wooden spoon beat until you have a smooth batter. This will take 5 minutes and is hard work, but is essential to produce the holes in the crumpets. Your arm will thank you when you stop!Cover and rest for 20 minutes (you can rest for 20 minutes too). The batter will rise and then begin to fall. You will see marks on the side of the bowl where the batter was before it dropped.Mix the bicarbonate of soda and salt with the warm water and beat it into the batter. Add about ¾ of the water and keep adding it until you get a double cream consistency. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.Heat a flat griddle or heavy based pan. Lightly grease the inside of four metal crumpet rings or use a small, perfectly sized pan. Lightly grease the griddle/pan. Heat the pan on a medium heat.Drop two dessert spoons of mixture into each ring. After 4-5 minutes bubbles should appear and the surface should be set. Carefully turn the crumpets in their rings and cook for a further three minutes.Serve immediately or leave to cool and then toast before eating with plenty of butter.

So whether you make a crumpet or a pikelet make sure you fill all of those holes with butter and enjoy a little taste of England!

We just arrived back from a three week trip to England. It was a great trip and we ate very, very well for the entire three weeks. I am looking back through my photos and they are pretty much all of food!

I am not going to flood this post with endless photos of our trip as I already did that to my Instagram feed whilst we were eating our way around the UK! Here are just a few;

In my Mum's summer house in Middleham, North Yorkshire

Middleham, North Yorkshire

Dhoon Beach, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland

A Yorkshire Ploughman's Lunch

The Cavern, Liverpool

Crumpets: the best thing to go in a toaster, ever!

We ate a lot of crumpets! We even family fought about them and there was a lot of crumpet stealing going on too. If you have no idea what a crumpet is, I will be sharing my recipe for homemade crumpets very soon on the blog.

My Mum hosted a few fabulous brunches for us in the UK and I feel that this needs to be continued now we are back in Canada. Bloody Mary's are the perfect way to get a weekend started and I will be creating some amazing brunch recipes and drinks to share with you.

I have returned to Canada a size (or two) larger around the middle but brimming with excitement for recipes I want to create and share. The food, drink and company was outstanding and it makes me glad that I get to revel in it every time we travel back for a visit.

Get ready for some British inspired food and drink over the next weeks!

About me

A life without lemons is like swimming in the nude, you can do it but it just feels wrong!I am an Edmonton food blogger, lady butcher, enthusiastic baker, gin drinker and lego picker upper. I make fabulous food and share it here.